Can A Notary also Double as a Witness?

[Anonymous]

My family had a trust drawn up a few months ago, and there was a spot for two witness signatures. The notary public at the bank said that she could be one of the witnesses, so we executed it that way. There were two lines for two witnesses, and the notary said our sole witness could sign them both. I relied On the notary's assurance.

Now I'm not sure. We sent it back to the estate attorney for filing, and she never said it was wrong, but maybe they missed something. I don't want to call her because she charges $500 an hour for questions.

Any advice?

[Anonymous]

Yes. A notary is not actually required. It just invokes a presumption that the signatures are valid. The witnesses are required. And she can act as both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. A notary is not actually required. It just invokes a presumption that the signatures are valid. The witnesses are required. And she can act as both.

Oh, good. Thank you. (Hope you won't bill me!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My family had a trust drawn up a few months ago, and there was a spot for two witness signatures. The notary public at the bank said that she could be one of the witnesses, so we executed it that way. There were two lines for two witnesses, and the notary said our sole witness could sign them both. I relied On the notary's assurance.

Now I'm not sure. We sent it back to the estate attorney for filing, and she never said it was wrong, but maybe they missed something. I don't want to call her because she charges $500 an hour for questions.

Any advice?

had a sick relative die after care for over a year. when I compare the amount of money paid to health care workers, that gave loving care day and night for a year, and compare that to the amount of money paid to an estate attorney for a weekend of work, it is obscene.

to all the law school graduates out of work, go into estate tax law. How hard can it be, people have been dying for millions of years and estate law had been established for hundreds of years, yet somehow these lawyers are able to charge $450 an hour for relatively unskilled work. We should not have to spend $9000 on an estate lawyer to close an estate that is basic and had a will established well in advance. just a rape of people. lawyers are no better than parasites.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My family had a trust drawn up a few months ago, and there was a spot for two witness signatures. The notary public at the bank said that she could be one of the witnesses, so we executed it that way. There were two lines for two witnesses, and the notary said our sole witness could sign them both. I relied On the notary's assurance.

Now I'm not sure. We sent it back to the estate attorney for filing, and she never said it was wrong, but maybe they missed something. I don't want to call her because she charges $500 an hour for questions.

Any advice?

had a sick relative die after care for over a year. when I compare the amount of money paid to health care workers, that gave loving care day and night for a year, and compare that to the amount of money paid to an estate attorney for a weekend of work, it is obscene.

to all the law school graduates out of work, go into estate tax law. How hard can it be, people have been dying for millions of years and estate law had been established for hundreds of years, yet somehow these lawyers are able to charge $450 an hour for relatively unskilled work. We should not have to spend $9000 on an estate lawyer to close an estate that is basic and had a will established well in advance. just a rape of people. lawyers are no better than parasites.

OP here. I agree. The trust was many pages, but from what I could see was mainly boilerplate in which some specifics about us were inserted in spots. I really doubt it took the lawyer more than a few hours, if that. We paid thousands!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My family had a trust drawn up a few months ago, and there was a spot for two witness signatures. The notary public at the bank said that she could be one of the witnesses, so we executed it that way. There were two lines for two witnesses, and the notary said our sole witness could sign them both. I relied On the notary's assurance.

Now I'm not sure. We sent it back to the estate attorney for filing, and she never said it was wrong, but maybe they missed something. I don't want to call her because she charges $500 an hour for questions.

Any advice?

had a sick relative die after care for over a year. when I compare the amount of money paid to health care workers, that gave loving care day and night for a year, and compare that to the amount of money paid to an estate attorney for a weekend of work, it is obscene.

to all the law school graduates out of work, go into estate tax law. How hard can it be, people have been dying for millions of years and estate law had been established for hundreds of years, yet somehow these lawyers are able to charge $450 an hour for relatively unskilled work. We should not have to spend $9000 on an estate lawyer to close an estate that is basic and had a will established well in advance. just a rape of people. lawyers are no better than parasites.

OP here. I agree. The trust was many pages, but from what I could see was mainly boilerplate in which some specifics about us were inserted in spots. I really doubt it took the lawyer more than a few hours, if that. We paid thousands!

Then do it yourself! Nothing is stopping you. Except you can't even figure out the witness/notary question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My family had a trust drawn up a few months ago, and there was a spot for two witness signatures. The notary public at the bank said that she could be one of the witnesses, so we executed it that way. There were two lines for two witnesses, and the notary said our sole witness could sign them both. I relied On the notary's assurance.

Now I'm not sure. We sent it back to the estate attorney for filing, and she never said it was wrong, but maybe they missed something. I don't want to call her because she charges $500 an hour for questions.

Any advice?

had a sick relative die after care for over a year. when I compare the amount of money paid to health care workers, that gave loving care day and night for a year, and compare that to the amount of money paid to an estate attorney for a weekend of work, it is obscene.

to all the law school graduates out of work, go into estate tax law. How hard can it be, people have been dying for millions of years and estate law had been established for hundreds of years, yet somehow these lawyers are able to charge $450 an hour for relatively unskilled work. We should not have to spend $9000 on an estate lawyer to close an estate that is basic and had a will established well in advance. just a rape of people. lawyers are no better than parasites.

OP here. I agree. The trust was many pages, but from what I could see was mainly boilerplate in which some specifics about us were inserted in spots. I really doubt it took the lawyer more than a few hours, if that. We paid thousands!

Then do it yourself! Nothing is stopping you. Except you can't even figure out the witness/notary question.

You don't have to be snarky. We did see boilerplate templates they sold online but decided to go with the attorney because we didn't want to chance an error. That doesn't negate the observation that lawyers are overpaid, especially in routine matters like setting up trust documents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My family had a trust drawn up a few months ago, and there was a spot for two witness signatures. The notary public at the bank said that she could be one of the witnesses, so we executed it that way. There were two lines for two witnesses, and the notary said our sole witness could sign them both. I relied On the notary's assurance.

Now I'm not sure. We sent it back to the estate attorney for filing, and she never said it was wrong, but maybe they missed something. I don't want to call her because she charges $500 an hour for questions.

Any advice?

had a sick relative die after care for over a year. when I compare the amount of money paid to health care workers, that gave loving care day and night for a year, and compare that to the amount of money paid to an estate attorney for a weekend of work, it is obscene.

to all the law school graduates out of work, go into estate tax law. How hard can it be, people have been dying for millions of years and estate law had been established for hundreds of years, yet somehow these lawyers are able to charge $450 an hour for relatively unskilled work. We should not have to spend $9000 on an estate lawyer to close an estate that is basic and had a will established well in advance. just a rape of people. lawyers are no better than parasites.

OP here. I agree. The trust was many pages, but from what I could see was mainly boilerplate in which some specifics about us were inserted in spots. I really doubt it took the lawyer more than a few hours, if that. We paid thousands!

Then do it yourself! Nothing is stopping you. Except you can't even figure out the witness/notary question.

You don't have to be snarky. We did see boilerplate templates they sold online but decided to go with the attorney because we didn't want to chance an error. That doesn't negate the observation that lawyers are overpaid, especially in routine matters like setting up trust documents.

You don't make sense. There are other options. You valued the one you chose because of the expertise you get with it. You have to pay for that. You could have gone with the cheaper option. Yet you didn't. If you thought it was overpriced, you should have picked the cheaper option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My family had a trust drawn up a few months ago, and there was a spot for two witness signatures. The notary public at the bank said that she could be one of the witnesses, so we executed it that way. There were two lines for two witnesses, and the notary said our sole witness could sign them both. I relied On the notary's assurance.

Now I'm not sure. We sent it back to the estate attorney for filing, and she never said it was wrong, but maybe they missed something. I don't want to call her because she charges $500 an hour for questions.

Any advice?

had a sick relative die after care for over a year. when I compare the amount of money paid to health care workers, that gave loving care day and night for a year, and compare that to the amount of money paid to an estate attorney for a weekend of work, it is obscene.

to all the law school graduates out of work, go into estate tax law. How hard can it be, people have been dying for millions of years and estate law had been established for hundreds of years, yet somehow these lawyers are able to charge $450 an hour for relatively unskilled work. We should not have to spend $9000 on an estate lawyer to close an estate that is basic and had a will established well in advance. just a rape of people. lawyers are no better than parasites.

OP here. I agree. The trust was many pages, but from what I could see was mainly boilerplate in which some specifics about us were inserted in spots. I really doubt it took the lawyer more than a few hours, if that. We paid thousands!

Then do it yourself! Nothing is stopping you. Except you can't even figure out the witness/notary question.

You don't have to be snarky. We did see boilerplate templates they sold online but decided to go with the attorney because we didn't want to chance an error. That doesn't negate the observation that lawyers are overpaid, especially in routine matters like setting up trust documents.

You don't make sense. There are other options. You valued the one you chose because of the expertise you get with it. You have to pay for that. You could have gone with the cheaper option. Yet you didn't. If you thought it was overpriced, you should have picked the cheaper option.

Why does everything on DCUM devolve Into an argument? We paid for the attorney knowing it would be expensive because the converse was risky. That said, it does not negate the fact that lawyers charge too much - and their expertise in routine matters is overvalued.

[Anonymous]

It's not that routine. The statutes are complicated and nitpicky. You can't even determine what witnesses you need, so you definitely couldn't write a valid will.

What's a "fair" price? Attorney fees are set by the market. You paid voluntarily. You could have found a cheaper attorney.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not that routine. The statutes are complicated and nitpicky. You can't even determine what witnesses you need, so you definitely couldn't write a valid will.

What's a "fair" price? Attorney fees are set by the market. You paid voluntarily. You could have found a cheaper attorney.

Agree with this. Most of what you're paying for when you get a will done is the advice and counsel of the attorney to identify the appropriate forms for your situation rather than simply completing the forms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not that routine. The statutes are complicated and nitpicky. You can't even determine what witnesses you need, so you definitely couldn't write a valid will.

What's a "fair" price? Attorney fees are set by the market. You paid voluntarily. You could have found a cheaper attorney.

Agree with this. Most of what you're paying for when you get a will done is the advice and counsel of the attorney to identify the appropriate forms for your situation rather than simply completing the forms.

However, it comes with NO warranty. If and when there is a problem, it's not like the lawyer will show up for free to deal with issues! So, yes. Way too expensive. I won't blame you guys though. It's like the pharma companies. They charge what they do because they can and are ALLOWED to by the government.

[Anonymous]

If you don't want to pay an attorney, do it yourself and hope you get it right and that you didn't make a mistake that causes you to die without a valid will. There is no requirement to hire an attorney. Good luck!